AC200 Solar charging

Hi All, trying to get my AC200 charged with single panel and all I see is about 22.5 Input Voltage and 0 input current 0 input power. Tried a different panel same result, tested in all levels of sun, same deal voltage goes up or down with sun but no current, anyone experiencing the same, Do I have a defect? Thanks!

Read the manual. 35volts input minimum before it will accept a charge. I purchased this also before realizing. Have 2 sets of rockpals 100w portable in series producing 44volts and is accepting a charge. I’m new to solar and just learning

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Added 2nd, then 3rd panel and it starts to charge but then trips again on low voltage fault even though it reads 70V (?) Read the manual didn’t see any other info except that it should be plug and play…
Any help appreciated. Thanks

Played with it some more, looks like you have to be under 90% charged for PV charge to work. Discharged to 88% and now charging, will see if it cuts out again at 90%

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Good to know. I really don’t know that much about it I’m new at this
. Put a new fuse in my car charger and its working now. Drove to REI and back charging at 114 watts while on the road. Will probably work for my application. My unit seems to be working good. I do have those temps all over the place like others have stated. Don’t think that will really affect me. Just using it for Overlanding

Investigating further, I think my issue was not the charge capacity, the solar charging did not cut out again after 90% charge. I looked at the faults and it was tripping on high temperature. Not sure why, it could have been the unit was in the sun, and when I repositioned the AC200 with when moving things around to connect 3 panels, it was then out of the sun. Weird. I would not think a little heat from the sun should not disable solar charging.

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Whats the deal with panels in the rain, manual says no but it seems to be weatherproof material. Would be nice to not have to tear down if there is a passing rain shower.

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Per the Bluetti manual the high temp limit on charging is 131 degrees F. and if the 131 degree limit is reached, the unit has to cool to 113 F before charging will begin again. This documentation is listed in the manual under the “specifications” portion around page 12.

The panels ability to withstand “rain” is fairly conservative. What constitutes “rain” to one could mean 8" in a day to a guy like me out in Florida. I don’t think you would have any issues with occasional light shower but if it were me, I would not want my $300 panels subjected to anything that would potentially void the warranty.

Just for more reference. Today in Iowa pretty sunny at about 0230. 2- portable 100w rockpals( the newer version with built in legs produced 112 watts and 44 volts. At least everything works with my AC200p. I have almost the same backfeed setup as the Moderator and will be looking for that adapter cord. Not that that I intend to use the Ac200p for backup power, but it would be kind of cool.

This plug cord will also tie both your 120 volt lines together in the house to power up all 120 volt circuits.

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Thank you Scott. So looking at the fault data the unit tripped on hi temperature. I assume this is why it was not charging via PV. However, the ambient temp here in Charlotte , NC was about 55 deg F so I dont know how/why it could have gotten so hot, the unit was in direct sunlight for about 20 min but this time fo year I would not think that was the issue.

Had you just done a high wattage discharge followed by a recharge? Sometimes the inverter heat from a high wattage discharge will raise the overall temp sufficiently. It is possible the dark case absorbed the sunlight sufficiently to raise the temp along with a discharge creating additional heat. I have not run mine outdoors to see if there are any issues.

One thing I would check is to see if any of your temps are reading incorrectly higher that actual to determine if it is a faulty sensor reading. Basically, put the unit inside and let is cool to room temp (or warm up) for a day and then look at the different temperature displays and see if one of the temps is showing higher than what the temperature should be for the environment the AC200 is in. That would cause a high temp error even if the temps were within actual range.

I have seen several displays where the temp appears to be reading lower than actual but not one that shows higher. It also appears that the charging does generate a fair amount of heat especially when converting lower voltage to higher battery voltage. Basically the lower the input voltage, the more heat mine will generate. Usually the temp will rise to 102 F and the fan will kick on followed by the temp lowering to about the mid 90s, fan shutting off and the cycle slowly repeats itself.

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Yes, not long before I had a power washer connected to discharge the battereis to under 90%, to see if that would allow the PV charging. That is probably what happened! Thank you again. All woring great now except for 1 thing, the parasite losses/discharge seems to between 5-10% a day if I leave the unit on. Is there a change of settings or fix for this?

Yes. Turn the unit off when you don’t need to use the power.

So when I turn the AC200? Off as you suggest…it seems to turn itself back on if incoming solar PV power…Is that normal?

Yes, it is designed to turn on automatically and begin charging (if less than fully charged already) when connected to solar panels that are outputting a minimum of 35 volts of power.

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I experience this too. I can’t seem to get PV to work with a 120w or 200w solar panel from Bluetti. I do get some power if the mode is set to car, and that mode does work for my car’s lighter. However, I have yet to get connected solar panels in any configuration to work beyond a power trickle

That’s because you need more then 1 panel in series to reach the 35v min requirement for solar (PV) charging.

Yup, thanks. It’s working great now

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